Lawfront acquires Slater Heelis

This is Lawfront’s eighth acquisition, its third in the last twelve months, and another milestone in its growth story.

Lawfront’s strategy is to partner with general legal services firms with a leading position in their region, a strong brand for client service, a dedication to their people, and management teams that have a history of delivering profitable growth. Lawfront backs these teams to achieve their ambitions through organic growth, further local “merge-in” acquisitions and by bringing investment and expertise in, people, IT and AI, marketing, finance and compliance.

Slater Heelis takes Lawfront’s revenue to approximately £70m, with market-leading profitability, and is an important further step in achieving its vision of building a leading, high-quality, national legal services business.

Slater Heelis is a fast-growing legal services firm that has expanded considerably over the last few years.

In 2021, the firm incorporated to implement an ambitious acquisition and organic growth strategy. The acquisition of Towns Needham and NJ Goodman & Co added service lines in Charity Law and Insolvency, as well as a Regulatory Team. These complemented existing market-leading and award-winning teams including Family, Court of Protection and Corporate. In 2023, Slater Heelis was one of the first law firms to set up a Share Incentive Plan providing shares in the company to all colleagues.

This transaction allows Slater Heelis to continue its growth strategy, as well as rewarding its shareholders for their hard work and commitment. Working with Lawfront underpins Slater Heelis' commitment to its people in their development and rewards, investing more in technology and further enhancing its services for clients.

Neil Lloyd, Lawfront CEO, said: “I am delighted to welcome Slater Heelis to Lawfront. The deal is further validation of our unique approach to the general legal services market: backing firms’ management teams, preserving their client facing brands, and most importantly, enhancing the prospects of their people. We are seeing rapidly growing interest in our proposition as it addresses the major concerns of succession, legacy and the scale of investment required to remain competitive.

“Slater Heelis has roots in the North West going back 250 years and has a fantastic reputation, not just with its clients for service excellence, but also with its people and communities. I’m really proud to be working with them.”

Simon Wallwork, Partner and Head of Corporate, who instigated and led the transaction for Slater Heelis, said: “We started the process last June and the proposition provided by Lawfront is excellent. It has a shared vision of growth and investment and enables Slater Heelis to continue and fulfil its own vision. This transaction will accelerate our acquisition strategy as well as allowing us to invest in our culture and the communities we operate in.”

Chris Bishop Managing Partner, Slater Heelis said: “Our clients are at the forefront of everything we do and this will enable us to continue building the trusted relationships we have with them.”

Lawfront is backed by private equity firm, Blixt Group (Blixt).

Carl Harring, CEO at Blixt, said: “We are delighted to be partnering with Slater Heelis through our investment in Lawfront. The firm is an exciting addition to the Lawfront family, with a strong team, a deeply embedded commitment to high quality client service and an ambitious growth agenda, and brings Lawfront revenue to in excess of £70m.

“We look forward to continuing to support Lawfront on its exciting growth trajectory and delivering on its vision to transform the consumer and SME legal market, through partnering with the highest quality law firms in the UK.”